China's Leviathan

By

John P. Burns

Updated March 17, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

On March 6 the Chinese government announced a radical reorganization of the central and local governments, to be carried out within three years. The number of ministry-level bodies of the State Council will be cut to 29 from 40 through a process of reorganization and mergers in which many of the functions of so- called economic ministries will be corporatized. In the process, half of the administrative, managerial and professional positions-- an estimated four million jobs--will be lost. On March 10 the National People's Congress overwhelmingly endorsed the reforms, indicating relatively high levels of bureaucratic...